Why does south korea hate japan

The Hanoitimes – Facilitating businesspeople is part of efforts to boost the economic relations amid global uncertainties.

Vietnam and South Korea continue cooperating in coronavirus response, including relaxing coronavirus quarantine, to enhance economic ties amid the severe global health crisis.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho in Hanoi on December 4. Photo: Baoquocte

The two countries have facilitated business travelers to resume as much as possible economic activities in the course that huge investment and trade inflows from South Korea are coming to Vietnam.

As of end-2019, South Korea topped 132 countries and territories pouring money into Vietnam with US$66.6 billion.

In terms of trade, Vietnam is a major trading partner of South Korea. In 2019, the two-way trade recorded US$69.2 billion, up 15.9% on-year.

Since Hanoi took border control measures in March to stem the virus spread, the government of Vietnam has allowed about 18,000 business people from South Korea to enter the country via special flights approved by the Vietnamese authorities.

In September, the first commercial international flight to Vietnam was from South Korea after the country halted all international flights since March.

The flights were operated shortly after South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha visited Hanoi, making her the first foreign minister to visit Vietnam since the pandemic started earlier this year.

South Korean businesspeople support the Covid-19 battle in Vietnam. Photo: Daidoanket

In November, South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug picked Vietnam for his first foreign trip since taking office in June, with a focus on economic relations.

In a latest move, Vietnam has decided to exempt coronavirus quarantine to business people and their families from South Korea.

South Korea is the second country benefiting special entry procedure system after Japan.

The exemption, which will take effect on January 1, 2021, was included in an agreement reached at a meeting in Hanoi last week between Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Lee Tae-ho, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The exemption will be applied for business travelers in a less-than-14 day trip, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The visitors are required to submit negative Covid-19 test results certificates that were issued within five days before their departure, to undergo virus tests upon arrival in Vietnam, and to follow strict quarantine guidelines set by the Vietnamese authorities during their stay.

The Hanoitimes – Demand for flying from South Korea to Vietnam is enormous due to the huge investment and trade inflows in the country.

Vietnam will resume the first international flight from South Korea to the country on September 25 after months of travel restrictions due to Covid-19.

Vietnam Airlines is allowed to resume international flights. Photo: VNA

Vietnam Airlines, the national flag carrier, will operate the Seoul-Hanoi route with Airbus A350 that is able to carry more than 300 passengers.

Vietnam Airlines said tickets are not sold via its website but through agents in Vietnam and South Korea.

It will be the first commercial international flight to Vietnam approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAA) after the country halted all international flights from March 25 due to the pandemic.

To make this air route possible, on September 17-18, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha visited Vietnam and resumption of air services was one of issues during talks with her Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, about 9,000 South Koreans, mostly businesspeople, have been allowed to enter Vietnam in exception to entry curbs since the pandemic broke out, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.

Vietnam resumed international air routes on September 18 with a flight from Hanoi to Tokyo to fly nearly 60 passengers who are Vietnamese students and workers and Japanese nationals.

The CAA will license commercial flights to Vietnam from six countries and one territory namely South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.

Passengers in such flights are (1) foreign holders of diplomatic passports and their relatives; (2) foreign experts, investors, managers, high-skilled workers and their relatives, foreign students, and foreigners who are Vietnamese people’s relatives; (3) Vietnamese people returning to the country.

The passengers come on conditions of showing coronavirus-free certificates within three days before the departure; confirmation of a quarantine facility in Vietnam; installing apps for contact tracing; and making health declaration.

Time for quarantine might be less than five day for passengers from selected routes and 14 days for those from a third country.

The Hanoitimes – The growth rate is significantly lower than the 6.8% growth rate recorded in the first quarter of 2019.

There is a high possibility that Vietnam’ s GDP growth to slow to 6 – 6.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, significantly lower than the 6.8% growth rate from the same period of last year, according to Viet Dragon Securities Company (VDSC).

VDSC also expected the number of international visitors will  drop significantly from February 2020, while agricultural goods exports to China will keep decreasing because of tighter supervision at the land border control.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s industrial production index plummeted 5.5% year-on-year in January, compared with the inter-annual pace of 7.9% last January.

During the last three months, many significant events took place in various areas such as trade agreements (US-China Phase One and USMCA), geopolitical risks (Brexit and Trump’s Middle East peace plan) and unexpected natural disasters (Coronavirus and Australia fires). Among those, the US-China Phase One deal and Coronavirus outbreak, originating in Wuhan, China, have impinged upon economic growth forecasts. The former delivered a silver lining for ASEAN+3 growth before the latter put some gloom on the global economic outlook and forced economists to reconsider revising down their forecasts.

The signing of the Phase One deal was going to push up expectations of economic growth for the 10 ASEAN member nations, as well as for China, Japan, and South Korea to 4.9% in 2020, according to the ASEAN +3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). In addition to resilient domestic demand, the easing trade tensions was a seen as a boon for regional exports, especially for semi-conductor products.

Hong Kong (China) and Singapore economies are now forecast to grow at a higher pace in 2020: 1.2% year-on-year from a negative rate of -0.2% year-on-year. Additionally, Japan, South Korea and even China’s economic growth forecasts have also increased compared with the preliminary numbers published at the end of 2019. This is reflected in the stock market performance of these countries during the last three months.

However, the unexpected spread of the coronavirus outbreak is now impacting economists’ forecasts for 2020. One of the issue is that this may delay the recovery of global trade as well as general economic conditions. While the economic growth of the region is likely to be revised down by 0.1-0.3%, regional stock markets are being under pressure due to rising concerns of health crises, geopolitical risks, natural disasters and political turmoil.

According to the experience from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, starting in November 2002 before subsiding in the summer of 2003, stock markets suffered losses during the “rising concern” period. In China, retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment took a hit in the second quarter of 2003. Currently, the market has started revising down China’s economic growth forecast to below 6% in the first quarter of 2020, and is expecting further fiscal stimulus to be implemented by the central government in China.

The Hanoitimes – FDI commitments in the January – September period totaled US$21.2 billion, down nearly 19% year-on-year.

Disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Vietnam totaled US$13.76 billion in the first nine months of this year, representing a decline of 3.2% year-on-year as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the global economy, a report of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment has shown.

FDI commitments in the January – September period totaled US$21.20 billion.

Meanwhile, FDI commitments in the January – September period fell nearly 19% year-on-year to US$21.20 billion.

Year to September 20, 1, 947 new projects have been approved with total registered capital of US$ 10 . 3 6 billion, down 29.4% in the number and 5.6 % in capital year-on-year, while 798 existing projects have been injected an additional US$ 5 . 11 billion, down 23% year-on-year in number but up 6.8 % in capital.

According to the report, injections of US$1.38 billion in the Petrochemical Complex project in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province (Long Son Petrochemical) and US$774 million in the West Lake Urban project (Hanoi) have directly contributed to a rise in capital addition.

During this period, 5,172 projects have had nearly US$ 5 . 73 billion in capital contributed by foreign investors, down 20.5 % in the number of projects and 4 4 . 9 % in value year-on-year.

Notably, the proportion of capital contribution in total FDI commitment has significantly reduced from 40% between January and September of 2019 to 27% in the comparable period of 2020.

Investors have poured money into 18 fields and sectors, in which manufacturing and processing led the pack with investment capital of over US$9.9 billion, accounting for 46.6% of total registered capital. Electricity production and supply came second with US$4.3 billion, followed by real estate with US$3.2 billion, and wholesale and retail with US$1.3 billion.

The report shows that out of 111 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in the first nine months of 2020, Singapore took the lead with US$6.77 billion, or 32% of the total, followed by South Korea with US$3.17 billion, and China with US$1.87 billion, or 8.8%.

In terms of fresh projects, South Korea took the top spot with 499 projects, while China and Japan claimed the second and third positions with 271 and 209 projects, respectively.

Among 60 cities and provinces having received FDI in the nine-month period, Bac Lieu has attracted the largest portion of capital commitments with US$4 billion, or 18.8% of the total. Ho Chi Minh City came second with nearly US$3.25 billion, followed by Hanoi with US$2.92 billion. For new projects, Ho Chi Minh City attracted the largest number with 719 projects, followed by Hanoi with 409 and Bac Ninh, 119.

Besides the US$4-billion LNG plant project financed by a Singaporean investor, some other big-ticket projects in January – September include a tire manufacturing plant worth US$300 million by a Chinese investor in Tay Ninh province; an additional injection of US$138 million into a Chinese-invested radial tire production facility; an addition of US$75.2 million to Japan’s Sews-components Vietnam manufacturing plant for electronic and auto parts; and Hong Kong’s Ce Link Vietnam 2 plant worth US$49.8 million in Bac Giang for electronic parts and products.

The Hanoitimes – Japan regained the position of largest investor in Vietnam for the first two months of 2021 with US$1.64 billion, or 30% of the total registered FDI.

Disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI) capital in Vietnam reached US$2.5 billion in the first two months of this year, representing an increase of 2% year-on-year, a report of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment has shown.

Electronics production at Quang Minh Industrial Park in Me Linh district, Hanoi. Photo: Pham Hung.

Meanwhile, FDI commitments during the January – February period fell 15.6% year-on-year to US$5.46 billion as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to exert its impacts on global economy, noted the FIA.

Year to February 20, 126 new projects have been approved with total registered capital of US$3.31 billion, down 74.8% in the number of projects and 33.9% in capital year-on-year, while 115 existing projects have been injected an additional US$1.61 billion, falling 23.8% in number but rising by 2.5-fold in capital.

During this period, 445 projects had nearly US$543.1 million in capital contributed by foreign investors, down 71.9% in number of projects and 34.4% in value year-on-year.

Investors have poured money into 17 fields and sectors, in which manufacturing and processing led the pack with investment capital of over US$3 billion, accounting for 55.7% of total registered capital. Electricity production and distribution came second with US$1.44 billion, or 26.5%, followed by real estate and R&D with respective figures of US$485 million and US$153 million.

The report added that out of 46 countries and territories having projects in Vietnam in the first two months of the year, Japan took the lead with US$1.64 billion, or 30% of the total registered FDI, followed by Singapore with US$1.07 billion, or 19.6% and South Korea with US$1.05 billion, or 19.3%.

Among 43 cities and provinces having received FDI in the two-month period, Can Tho has attracted the largest portion of capital commitments with US$1.31 billion, or 24.1% of the total. Hai Phong came second with nearly US$918 million (16.8%) followed by Bac Giang with US$573 million (10.5%).

Big-ticket projects in the January-February include an additional injection of US$312 million into a tire manufacturing plant in Tay Ninh province; Kodi New Material Vietnam manufacturing plan from Singaporean investor worth US$270 million to make tablets and laptops in Bac Giang province; the manufacturing project of photovoltaic products Ja Solar PV Vietnam from Ja Solar Investment (Hong Kong) with investment capital of US$210 million at Bac Giang; hi-tech project Everwin (Hong Kong) worth US$200 million to produce plastic products at Nghe An; a semi-conductor manufacturing plant of United States Enterprises (US) with US$100 million in Danang.

The Hanoitimes – The city attracted 438 new foreign-invested projects during the January – October period.

Hanoi remained third among 60 cities and provinces in Vietnam having received foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first ten months this year with US$3.13 billion, accounting for 13.3% of total nationwide, a report of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment has shown.

FDI commitments to Vietnam in the January – October period fell 19.4% year-on-year to US$23.48 billion.

Bac Lieu has attracted the largest portion of capital commitments with US$4 billion, or 17% of the total, while Ho Chi Minh City came second with nearly US$3.4 billion, or 14.6%. For new projects, Ho Chi Minh City attracted the largest number with 776 projects, followed by Hanoi with 438 and Bac Ninh, 125.

Source: MPI

Overall, disbursement of FDI projects in Vietnam totaled US$15.8 billion in the first ten months of this year, representing a decline of 2.5% year-on-year as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the global economy.

Such a decline, however, indicates an improvement from a 3.2% decline in the previous month, reflecting the gradual recovery of foreign-invested enterprises in the remaining months of 2020, stated the MPI.

Meanwhile, FDI commitments in the January – October period fell 19.4% year-on-year to US$23.48 billion.

Year to October 20, 2,100 new projects have been approved with total registered capital of US$11.66 billion, down 32.1% in the number and 9.1% in capital year-on-year, while 907 existing projects have been injected an additional US$5.71 billion, down 20.8% year-on-year in number but up 5.71% in capital.

According to the report, injections of US$1.38 billion in the Long Son Petrochemical Complex project in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province and US$774 million in the West Lake Urban project in Hanoi have directly contributed to a rise in capital addition.

During this period, 5,451 projects have had nearly US$6.11 billion in capital contributed by foreign investors, down 20.5% in the number of projects and 43.5% in value year-on-year.

Consequently, the proportion of capital contribution in total FDI commitment has significantly dropped from 37.1% between January and October of 2019 to 26% in the comparable period of 2020.

Data: MPI. Chart: Ngoc Thuy.

The MPI said while there have been declines in both the number and value of foreign projects in Vietnam, the FDI commitment to the country remains positive compared to others globally. This shows Vietnam continues to be an attractive destination for foreign investors.

Investors have poured money into 18 fields and sectors, in which manufacturing and processing led the pack with investment capital of over US$10.7 billion, accounting for 45.7% of total registered capital. Electricity production and supply came second with US$4.8 billion, followed by real estate with US$3.5 billion, and wholesale and retail with US$1.4 billion.

The report shows that out of 109 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in the first ten months of 2020, Singapore took the lead with US$7.51 billion, followed by South Korea with US$3.42 billion, and China with US$2.17 billion.

In terms of fresh projects, South Korea took the top spot with 528 projects, while China and Japan claimed the second and third positions with 294 and 226 projects, respectively.

Besides the US$4-billion LNG plant project financed by a Singaporean investor, some other big-ticket projects between January and October include a tire manufacturing plant worth US$300 million by a Chinese investor in Tay Ninh province; an additional injection of US$138 million into a Chinese-invested radial tire production facility; an addition of US$75.2 million to Japan’s Sews-components Vietnam manufacturing plant for electronic and auto parts; and Hong Kong’s Ce Link Vietnam 2 plant worth US$49.8 million in Bac Giang for manufacturing electronic parts and products.